Why I Chose to Work with the Top OMC Partner, Relationship One

A few years ago, I stumbled across an article that really stuck in my head. Though the article is short, I found its’ points extremely compelling. In the article “What Matters Most When Choosing a Consulting Firm to Work For“, Greg Olsten, Ivy Exec’s Sr. Content Manager, identifies 5 critical components to consider for folks considering working for a consulting firm – Quality of Work, Culture, Money, Leadership, and Prestige.  As I prepared to wind down my career with Oracle, and started searching for the beginning of my next chapter, I began my search.

I thought Greg’s points applied to any company, not just consulting. Who wouldn’t want the perfect mix of these 5 characteristics in any job they were doing? Here’s what I discovered:

Quality of Work

Having spent the last 5 years in the Oracle Marketing Cloud I really wanted to stay within the OMC universe. Five years is plenty of time to learn which partners consistently provided quality work and rarely, if ever, caused complaints from customers.   As I weighed my options, I reached out to several customers I was familiar with, as well as Oracle peers to get their feedback about who they thought was delivering the A-Game day-in and day-out. Relationship One, emerged as a frontrunner organization that consistently helped clients solve big problems and deliver on their ROI objectives.

Culture

This was probably the most important criteria for me. I have always liked the speed and agility of an entrepreneurial environment. I also wanted to land at a place where the team actually bonded, both working and playing hard together. As an Alex Shootman (former CRO of Eloqua) disciple, I wanted to work with people who “Get it Done” and “Do it Right”.  This narrowed my search further.

Money

Money was important to me, but not in the sense you might think. I wanted to work for a firm that valued their work and priced it appropriately. Companies that discount at the drop of a hat don’t only devalue their work, they devalue their employees and their customers. I did not want to be the Walmart of the industry, but instead the Neiman Marcus. I always get a little leery when I see a product or service that is always having the price slashed. If you deliver quality you should be able to expect to be paid a fair price. It’s basic fair market economics. By now, I had effectively reduced my search down to three contenders.

Leadership

This one clinched Relationship One for me. I had met the leadership team from R1 at various events and knew they were competent, but as I progressed through the interview process, I came to realize their visionary approach to an ever-changing industry. It is rare to find individuals who have a firm grasp of a rapidly changing industry like MarTech, mixed with the ability to guide others to what the future holds AND possess a deep, intricate knowledge of technology. The leadership at Relationship One has this in spades. This was a team that I wanted to be a part of.

Prestige

This was the icing on the cake. As an Oracle Gold Partner, and the only partner that exclusively focuses on the full stack of Oracle Marketing Cloud solutions, Relationship One was the right choice for me. After 10+ years in the industry, I wanted to work with the best-of-the-best technology. I didn’t want to learn Marketo, or Adobe, or ExactTarget, or any other marketing automation solutions that pale in comparison to the functionality and enterprise readiness of the Oracle Marketing Cloud. It’s hard enough to be experts in one technology, much less trying to be everything to everyone. Given that Relationship One is laser focused on Oracle, I knew they understood this principle as well.

As I wrote this blog post, it occurred to me that these criteria are equally applicable to selecting and hiring a consulting firm. Greg further writes in the article, “Consulting is one of those magical industries where landing in the wrong company can be a complete disaster.”  Seems to me that hiring the wrong consulting firm can be equally disastrous. After weighing the values that were important to me, it’s clear that I’ve landed at the right company with Relationship One. I can’t wait to continue my Oracle Marketing Cloud journey, just this time around, it’s with the top OMC partner, R1.